Mah Jong
by Dolphin-chick
Summary: Not really worth it unless you want to learn how to play the game. Basically I was just working out my discriptive skills (or lack thereoff) on a story sparked by playing the game with my friend "Focora".


Disclaimers: Neither Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon belongs to me. Sailor Moon and related chracters belong to Naoko Takuechi/Kodensha and Toei Animation. Gundam Wing and related characters belong to Bandai and Sotsu Agency. The Zodiac Senshi are of my own creation.  
  
MAH JONG  
  
By Dolphin-chick  
~oO Oo~  
  
"Hey, Libra," Sailor Antares called out from the second floor balcony of the Crystal Tokyo Palace overlooking the vast expanse of the Royal Garden.  
  
Sailor Libra was lying on her side with her back to the cascading fountain, one wing unfolded and stretched across her face to keep the afternoon sun out of her eyes. She opened one eye and lifted her head to see Antares leaning against the railing. Rolling over and standing up, Libra lazily stretched upwards, her wings making her appear a good three feet taller than she actually was. "Yeah?" she answered as she tried to suppress a yawn unsuccessfully.  
  
"Come up here," Antares said.  
  
"'Kay!" Libra bent down then jumped up, flaring her wings at just the right moment, and flapping her way up to the balcony. Antares was already making her way down the hall. "C'mon! I found an old mah jong table sitting around in the storage rooms along with a bag of tiles. You remember how to play?" she asked.   
  
"Yeah," Libra answered.  
  
"Good; I got Wufei (1) and Sailor Pluto to play with us. Pluto doesn't really know how to play, so we're going to have to show her how. And we can't gamble on it 'cause we don't have any money."  
  
"OK."  
  
Antares turned down the hall and entered one of the rooms. In the center of the room was a small, green square table with little thick tiles scattered everywhere. Wufei had placed them all face down so all one could see was the blue back on each tile. Every now and then, one would flip over and the girls would get a glimpse of a multi-colored picture or Chinese character. Wufei flipped over a few tiles to show Pluto.  
  
"OK," he began. "The basic idea is to get four three of a kinds or four three in a rows, and a pair. To get three in a row, you have to know the different forms of numbers, kind of like suits in a card game. First, there are the circles: one circle equals one, two circles equals two, and so on. To get three in a row there must be three numbers, such as five, six and seven, in order and of the same suit. The stick looking ones work the same way as the circles. These are the hard ones." Wufei pointed out the nine tiles he had flipped over earlier. All of them had two Chinese characters engraved in them.  
  
"Ignore the red character on the bottom; it just means 'thousand'," Wufei continued. "The blue character on top represents a number. The first three are easy. One slash is one, two slashes are two and three slashes are three. Four is the one that looks like a box with two marks in it. Five is this really intricate symbol here. Six looks like a little man running, seven looks like an 'x', eight looks like a mustache, and nine looks like an 'n'. Got that?"  
  
Pluto nodded, studying the tiles for a while.  
  
"All right. A pair is just two of anything. As you can see, there are many other character other than the numbers, but numbers are the only ones you can use for three in a row.  
  
"Three of a kind can be any of the same thing. You can have a five, a five and a five; but you can also have a sword, a sword and a sword. Are you following me?"  
  
Pluto nodded again.  
  
"Now flowers don't mean anything, at least when you're not gambling, they don't. You'll put them off to the side, face up, and take another tile.  
  
"When you first start you'll have thirteen tiles. Unless you're the person who starts the game; then you'll have fourteen, but you'll throw one out, so you'll end up with thirteen."  
  
Pluto was beginning to look confused, but followed along anyway.  
  
"Gemini knows how to play," Antares said. "She can take my seat and I'll help Pluto." Wufei nodded and Libra left to find Gemini.  
  
"Ok, when you start, separate the ones you want, like a pair, or a five and a six, or a one, a two and a three, from those you don't want. You'll throw out the ones you don't want," Wufei continued.  
  
"What if you get to the point where you want all of them?" Pluto asked.  
  
"You have to risk it. When you throw one out, only the person after you can pick it up. Therefore, you can only pick up a tile that was thrown out if the person whose turn was before yours discarded it. If you take the discarded tile and it completes your three of a kind or your three in a row, you say 'pong' and put the tiles face up on the side. I think that's it," Wufei finished.   
  
Libra returned with Gemini in tow. Wufei and Antares set up the rows of tiles and distributed them. Wufei took the extra tile to start the game. Antares sat next to Pluto, who was seated to the left of Wufei. Then came Libra, and then Gemini, completed the square. Once they had everything started and organized, they began to play. Wufei put out a blue Chinese character.  
  
"What if you don't want the one the person threw out?" Pluto asked.  
  
"Then you take a tile from the row," Antares said and picked up a tile from one of the four double-stacked rows.  
  
"Do you want this one?" Antares said holding up the bird tile. Pluto looked at her tiles, nodded and put it next to the other bird. "What don't you want?" Antares asked. Pluto looked at her tiles again and picked out a 'four thousand'. She set it in the middle of the table where Wufei had put his.   
  
"Pong," Libra said and picked up the four thousand, She set down three tiles, face up, off to the side. She then threw out a single circle. Gemini looked at the tile and decided she didn't need it. She took a tile from the row they were using, set it with the rest and put out a blue box that resembled a picture frame. Wufei took his turn and discarded a bird. Pluto picked it up.  
  
"What do you say?" Antares asked.  
  
"Pong," Pluto said quietly. She put the three bird tiles off to the side of the table.  
  
The game went around the table about ten times. Wufei was apparently winning judging by how many tiles he had set aside and by Antares' growing consternation.  
  
Wufei set down a three thousand; Pluto immediately grabbed for it, said "pong!", and set aside a one, two and three thousand. Now Wufei and the Antares/Pluto team were tied for their last tile: the pair. Libra and Gemini both needed two more tiles.   
  
Again they went around, Gemini getting one of the two tiles she needed. Wufei took his turn and took one from the row; it wasn't the one he was looking for. It wasn't the one Pluto wanted either, so she took one from the row. It was a red Chinese character, a sword.  
  
Antares flipped over all four groups of three tiles and the pair. "We win," she said happily.  
  
"All I needed was the Jade Dragon (2), too," Wufei muttered mournfully.  
  
"Want to go another round anyone?" Gemini asked.  
  
  
~oO Finis Oo~  
  
Notes:  
1- Don't ask. Mah jong is a Chinese game. He's Chinese. Works for me.  
2- Umm... I don't know if that's what it is really.Focora and her brother called it the "Green Giant" when I was at their house, but "Jade Dragon" sounds Chinese-er. It's a big, scary, green character if you're wondering what it looks like.   
  
  



End file.
